JIM LONG: Teachers Unions’ Worst Nightmare Could Come True

For most Illinois students, learning ability is limited by their ZIP code far more than their academic capabilities. But for a short stint between 2017 and 2023, thousands of low-income students had a new opportunity.

The Invest in Kids tax credit scholarship program awarded over 40,000 scholarships to low-income students, helping them gain access to educational scholarships that empowered them to reach their full potential in schools beyond the neighborhoods they grew up in. After getting pressure and campaign cash from teachers unions, the Illinois General Assembly ended the program, making Illinois the only state to go against the national trend of increasing school choice.

Now, Illinoisans are getting another chance to access the academic freedom families deserve. A new school choice bill, the Educational Choice for Children Act, was just reintroduced to Congress. It previously was the first nationwide school choice bill to pass out of committee in U.S. history.

If enacted, the program would provide scholarships to K-12 students, which they could use for tuition to private schools and other educational expenses. Those expenses include education technology, online curriculum materials, fees for advance placement exams or college applications, tutoring and special-education resources for students with disabilities.

It could help an estimated 2 million students nationwide in any elementary or secondary education setting, including homeschools.

Sabrina Sibby sent her children to private school through the Invest in Kids program, finding a school close to home that met her children’s unique needs during critical and formative times in their lives.

“Transferring them to private school was the best decision I made physically, but not financially,” Sibby